The Village

 Our last field trip for the children to go on was to visit a village in preparation for their homestay.  We visit a village that is close by that one of our camp staff lives in.  His wife, Amai Mwanza, takes us around the village and explains things to the children.

 The kids coming out of a hut.

 The kids got to shell corn.

 In these pics. they are pounding groundnuts.

 Nicholas got to hold a baby chick.

 We even got to visit with the headman and his wife and ask questions about his position.

 The kids got to pump water.

 You can see that we had a crowd following us.

 Sally

The kids also got to shell peas.

Tea Time

 Each 40/40 we have the honor of receiving the cheifs wife and the District Commissioners wife for a tea at our camp.  While I go and pick them up the other women are busy decorating, baking, fixing tea, and preparing songs.  It is so much fun for me to see all that they have done in such a short amount of time to prepare for their coming.  We do not usually tell what other groups have done in the past so that they can be as creative as they want.  They all do such a great job!

 As we leave the building we all shake hands which is customary here in Zambia.

 This is our whole group with our guests.

 This year in addition to our other guests a man from the local radio station came by to interview some of us about this program.

 Alyssa and Anna Grace being interviewed.

Jessica, Ashley, and Alyssa sang a song during our program and he wanted to record them as they sang it a second time.

Church on Sunday

 While the participants of 40/40 went to different churches in the boma of Petauke our family traveled further east about 15 min. to the small town of Sinda.  We have known the pastor there for years and he had invited Kevin to come and preach.  We arrived and went straight to the pastors home just a few feet from the church.  He served us bread and tea as we got caught up on each others families since it had been awhile since we had seen each other.  We then went into the church and immediately were brought right up to the front on the platform .to sit facing the people in the church.  There were several choirs which sang beautifully and it was a great time of worship.  After Kevin preached 17 people came forward to receive Christ.  We thought that was quite a bit even though there were about 225 there that day.  Kevin asked the pastor and he said that no, those were mostly new people that came forward.  The church had just had a special visitation the day before to invite people to church.  These first 3 pictures are of the receiving line as we left the church that day.  It is customary here as you leave the church to shake everyone's hand as you leave the church.  It took me 3 pic. to get everyone in the scene.

You can see they are still coming and forming a line.

 Kevin doing follow up with those who received Christ.

 

This is Sinda Baptist Church and yes they really had 225 people in there!

After the new converts left the pastor asked if we would stay a bit and encourage an older woman who was a widow herself and had just recently had her oldest son die the month before.  She had been going to another denomination but after the death of her son she did not receive any encouragement from her church so she had started coming to this baptist church.  It was such a blessing to be able to encourage her and pray for her family during this difficult time in their lives.

Afterwards we went back to the pastors home to eat nshima and chicken.  We had a good time visiting with this family and this church.  As we were leaving they gave us groundnuts, watermellons, and pumpkin leaves.  No matter how long we are here we still are amazed at how generous and hospitable Zambians are. 

Crocodile Farm

We took the kids to the crocodile farm for one of their field trips.  They enjoyed learning all about snakes and crocodiles.  The kids got to see several pythons and even had the opportunity to hold one if they wanted.

Nicholas

Hannah

Daly

Katie

Elizabeth

Sally

Justin

Justin holding a brown house snake.

We saw lots of crocodiles.

We even got to touch one!

We also had lots of fun!  There were a couple of trampolines, swimming pools, a play ground, and a putt putt golf.

Elizabeth and Hannah